The c-word, redux

Or... Erin's turn.

A week before Christmas, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I found a lump in late November and testing confirmed my fears. We cancelled our planned Christmas trip to Louisiana and spent the past two weeks trooping from test to doctor to test to doctor.

The great news is that it is not metastatic breast cancer. It is officially stage 3. (For those of you who like to geek out, it is ER+, PR-, HER2-Neu + and 6/9 on the tumor scale.) The primary disease is in my right breast. Since we can’t do this the easy way, there is additional, unrelated disease in my left breast. Genetic testing is still in the works but dang, it seems like there has got to be a genetic component to this.

Treatment for this is going to be utterly sucky. It looks like I will start chemo on January 16^th. First up are four two-week cycles of the bad chemo (AC). Then I’ll have twelve one-week cycles of Taxol/Herceptin. Surgery and radiation will happen this summer after I get through the chemo.

The first round of chemo will have all of the expected side effects, including losing my hair. Before that happens, I plan to donate it to Locks of Love. It has been more than a decade since I cut all my hair off. If nothing else, it will be nice to have a different style for a few weeks.

Joey and I can’t believe we have to go through this again. It is totally unfair and deserves all the swear words we can throw at it. That said, we’re starting a few steps up because we have done this before.

What we learned last time is that we need all of you – your love, support, jokes, meals, calls, texts and offers of help. 

For the more tangible things, Joey and Katie have created a calendar on CaringBridge to be populated with meals, playdates, and other things as we think of them. The link is below, and it will be updated with chemo schedules and other requests for help as those things come up.

http://supportplanner.caringbridge.org/planners/erincarlson3

For the other, please know that we appreciate all calls, texts, fb posts and notes even if we don’t always reply in a timely fashion. 

I know that Joey, Sabine, Daria and I will survive – and maybe even thrive – through this next road bump. I so wish we didn't have to do this but we are certain we can... and I am definitely looking forward to another trip to Hawaii to celebrate the end of another cancer fight.